News
Registered sex offender acquitted in abuse trial
By Colin DeVries
CATSKILL — After an hour of deliberation, a Greene County jury acquitted registered sex offender Christopher Lackie on all six charges including rape and criminal sexual act, both felonies, involving a 14-year-old boy.
The trial featured testimony from the alleged victim, State Police investigators involved in the case, medical doctors, and eyewitnesses, but prosecutors could not prove to the jury, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Lackie should be convicted.
Defense attorney Sean Doolan asked the jury to take into account the inconsistencies of testimony given by some witnesses and make the determination of what is the truth.
“The prosecution can’t have their cake and eat it too,” said Doolan.
The boy, now 16, was asked to describe the events that occurred one fateful night between May 1 and July 31, 2006. The exact date of the alleged crimes remains unknown to investigators.
Assistant District Attorney Ann-Marie Rabin said that the boy “was choking” with anxiety on the witness stand as he gave his personal account of the events that transpired.
“He was reliving it,” she said. “It wasn’t some made-up story.”
The boy testified that he rode his bike to the Lackie residence in Cairo where he met his 18-year-old cousin, Anthony Ferry, to play on the computer and hang out.
While at the residence, the boy said that Lackie, 34, gave him several beers during his time there until, he said, he felt intoxicated.
After becoming intoxicated and feeling “dizzy,” the boy said that Lackie and Ferry called him into the bedroom where Lackie’s wife, Reasa, laid naked.
“’I had a sexual experience,” Rabin read from the boy’s testimony transcript. “’They told me to touch her privates.’”
The boy recounted having sexual intercourse with Reasa at that moment, then losing consciousness a short time after.
Ferry testified that when he had opened the bedroom door, he saw what appeared to be “a full-blown orgy.”
After regaining consciousness, the boy said he found himself naked and sandwiched between the Lackies, who were also nude. His testimony also recalled that Christopher Lackie had touched him in a sexual manner.
Doolan had countered during his closing arguments that the Ferrys, who had also been drinking, and the boy’s judgment had clearly been impaired by alcohol and that they even reported to have “blacked out” during the night.
Rabin said the minute details that the boy had provided in his testimony could not possibly have been fictitious.
“The devil’s in the details,” Rabin said.
The boy had noted that when he woke up naked he was freezing from the air conditioning and wondered where his socks went. He later found them in the Lackie bedroom.
The incident had not immediately been reported to police, according to prosecutors. Anthony Ferry’s father, Donald Ferry, had called State Police at Catskill to report the complaint.
The investigation was then followed up by State Police investigators, who said they had obtained enough evidence to indict both Christopher and Reasa Lackie.
Christopher Lackie, who was tried for rape in the second degree, faced charges of criminal sexual act in the second degree, endangering the welfare of a child, sexual abuse in the third degree, and two counts of unlawfully dealing with a child in the first degree for providing alcohol to Ferry and the 14-year-old boy.
After the not guilty verdicts were read, one juror, who requested to remain anonymous, said that there were too many discrepancies in the case to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Lackie should go to jail on the charges.
Another juror chalked it up to an incomplete investigation by police and that “the child’s testimony was erratic and inconsistent.”
“There just wasn’t enough to send the man away for however many years,” the juror added.
Christopher Lackie, now 36, has been a lifetime registered sex offender since 2000, after he was released from Greene County Jail after serving five years for two convictions of sodomy involving boys, ages 13 and 14, in 1995.
Reasa Lackie still faces felony charges of rape in the second degree and criminal sexual act in the second degree, as well as endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.
She is currently awaiting trial at the Greene County Jail, while Christopher Lackie has been released.
The trial featured testimony from the alleged victim, State Police investigators involved in the case, medical doctors, and eyewitnesses, but prosecutors could not prove to the jury, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Lackie should be convicted.
Defense attorney Sean Doolan asked the jury to take into account the inconsistencies of testimony given by some witnesses and make the determination of what is the truth.
“The prosecution can’t have their cake and eat it too,” said Doolan.
The boy, now 16, was asked to describe the events that occurred one fateful night between May 1 and July 31, 2006. The exact date of the alleged crimes remains unknown to investigators.
Assistant District Attorney Ann-Marie Rabin said that the boy “was choking” with anxiety on the witness stand as he gave his personal account of the events that transpired.
“He was reliving it,” she said. “It wasn’t some made-up story.”
The boy testified that he rode his bike to the Lackie residence in Cairo where he met his 18-year-old cousin, Anthony Ferry, to play on the computer and hang out.
While at the residence, the boy said that Lackie, 34, gave him several beers during his time there until, he said, he felt intoxicated.
After becoming intoxicated and feeling “dizzy,” the boy said that Lackie and Ferry called him into the bedroom where Lackie’s wife, Reasa, laid naked.
“’I had a sexual experience,” Rabin read from the boy’s testimony transcript. “’They told me to touch her privates.’”
The boy recounted having sexual intercourse with Reasa at that moment, then losing consciousness a short time after.
Ferry testified that when he had opened the bedroom door, he saw what appeared to be “a full-blown orgy.”
After regaining consciousness, the boy said he found himself naked and sandwiched between the Lackies, who were also nude. His testimony also recalled that Christopher Lackie had touched him in a sexual manner.
Doolan had countered during his closing arguments that the Ferrys, who had also been drinking, and the boy’s judgment had clearly been impaired by alcohol and that they even reported to have “blacked out” during the night.
Rabin said the minute details that the boy had provided in his testimony could not possibly have been fictitious.
“The devil’s in the details,” Rabin said.
The boy had noted that when he woke up naked he was freezing from the air conditioning and wondered where his socks went. He later found them in the Lackie bedroom.
The incident had not immediately been reported to police, according to prosecutors. Anthony Ferry’s father, Donald Ferry, had called State Police at Catskill to report the complaint.
The investigation was then followed up by State Police investigators, who said they had obtained enough evidence to indict both Christopher and Reasa Lackie.
Christopher Lackie, who was tried for rape in the second degree, faced charges of criminal sexual act in the second degree, endangering the welfare of a child, sexual abuse in the third degree, and two counts of unlawfully dealing with a child in the first degree for providing alcohol to Ferry and the 14-year-old boy.
After the not guilty verdicts were read, one juror, who requested to remain anonymous, said that there were too many discrepancies in the case to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Lackie should go to jail on the charges.
Another juror chalked it up to an incomplete investigation by police and that “the child’s testimony was erratic and inconsistent.”
“There just wasn’t enough to send the man away for however many years,” the juror added.
Christopher Lackie, now 36, has been a lifetime registered sex offender since 2000, after he was released from Greene County Jail after serving five years for two convictions of sodomy involving boys, ages 13 and 14, in 1995.
Reasa Lackie still faces felony charges of rape in the second degree and criminal sexual act in the second degree, as well as endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.
She is currently awaiting trial at the Greene County Jail, while Christopher Lackie has been released.
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